Close calls for two Stoughton families after similar fires

Friday

Apr 25, 2014 at 5:00 AMApr 25, 2014 at 12:45 PM

Scare for two Stoughton families after similar fires

Staff Reporter

STOUGHTON – Pulling up to Jeff and Paula Apotheker’s home on School Street, the first thing you notice is the charred, dark grass that takes up more than a third of the front lawn. The burned portion is just a couple of feet away from the mulch beds right in front of the home.

Nine-tenths of a mile away from the Apothekers, Jim and Kathy Long’s front yard on Poskus Street has the same scorched pattern of burnt grass from another front-lawn fire.

The Apotheker’s lawn went up in flames Saturday afternoon, just six days after the Long’s front yard.

“We were in Milton visiting our daughter and grandchildren when we got a call that our front lawn was on fire from a neighbor,” said Kathy Long. “It was only a couple of feet away from the house, it could have burned it down,” Jim Long said.

Both couples have spent some time trying to figure out how the fires started. “At first I thought someone was out to target me,” Jeff Apotheker said. “Then, I thought, maybe it was teens pulling a prank.” he said.

Both the Apothekers and the Longs said that only quick-thinking neighbors saved their homes.

The Apothekers’ son, Zach, 21, was home Saturday when a kid banged on the front door.

“He was yelling, ‘Your lawn’s on fire,’” Apotheker said. Smelling smoke, Zach and his friends ran outside. “The flames were up to their knees,” he said. His friends started stomping on the fire while Zach grabbed a hose from the backyard and put out the fire.

The Stoughton Fire Department had been called. By the time they got to the Apothekers’ home, the flames were extinguished.

Fortunately for the Longs, the neighbors who spotted the fire also used a hose from the backyard to douse the blaze.

The Longs were driving by the Apothekers’ home on Saturday when they saw the aftermath of the fire and turned around. They told Zach Apotheker they had a similar fire. Later that night, Zach told his father and that’s when Jeff Apotheker called police. the Stoughton Police Department.

Two officers came over to ask questions, said Apotheker. “It seemed like it was too much of a coincidence, the two lawn fires in the same neighborhood.”

Stoughton Deputy Fire Chief Greg Goldberg went to the Apothekers’ home Thursday. “I see cigarette butts strewn all over the side of the road and it’s almost a week later, but I don’t smell accelerants,” Goldberg said.

He said the exact cause may never be determined but, at this point, the most likely cause was from cigarettes. “They cause a lot of fires,” Goldberg said.

The fire at the Long’s house was found to be caused by a discarded cigarette, Goldberg said.

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, every year, almost 1,000 smokers and non-smokers are killed in home fires caused by cigarettes and other smoking materials.

“People need to be more careful,” Apotheker said. “It’s crazy to think that people have the audacity to just drive by and toss a cigarette out the window. It could have burned our home down.”

Jennifer Bray may be reached at jbray@enterprisenews.com or follow her on Twitter @JenniferB_ENT.